Attention!

Attention Mr. Crab Cake!  I would love to see this bag in the Bridal Room on our wedding day.

(Coach Penelope Shopper in Cobalt)

wink, wink… nudge, nudge!

The Ulimate DIY

I’ve been wanting to share this with you since long before I even thought my blogging would take me this far.

I “met” Ashley and Daniel in September when Ashley updated our LiveJournal group on her Wedding Plans.  I fell head over heels with her flowers.

Daniel has been folding paper since he was a toddler.  His Aunt Marilyn realized he always had to keep his hands busy, so she gave him paper to do just that.  Throughout his childhood he learned to create very detailed origami models, all using one piece of paper folded multiple times.  When I met him in high school, I learned how talented he was at this.  Later, he taught me how to make basic origami.  When we were dating, he would always fold me little things out of paper at restaurants or other places we would go.  I ended up with tons of little origami pieces he created during our relationship over the years.

Daniel proposed to me 2 days before our 5 year anniversary (5/19/01 was our “dating” anniversary).  He layed out a trail of 519 origami cranes, with rose petals in the middle, and candles at the end of the trail with him waiting there.  I came home to a great surprise, and the proposal was so beautiful.

(photos by Daniel)

When we started planning our wedding, we really didn’t think of incorporating origami.  I did think it would be special to use the 519 cranes in some way, but it wouldn’t match with the rest of the decor.  Since we set our date at November 15, 2008, we had plenty of time to figure things out.  Wedding planning goes by so fast!  Once we booked our venue and caterer, everything else just fell into place.  We knew exactly what kind of style we wanted for the wedding, the only problem was the flowers.

(Photos by Dave Anderl)

Flowers.  I never really liked fancy flowers.  Sure, I like getting flowers as a surprise or picking fresh flowers from my dad’s garden as a kid, but I never really cared for fancy floral arrangements or bouquets.  I wanted something simple, and the florists I researched just didn’t give me the feeling I wanted.  DIYing the flowers through a greenhouse wasn’t as great to me as it seemed initially.  I even thought about having my dad grow the flowers in his garden, but then I was concerned with how they might look in November.  The florists didn’t seem personal enough for me, and my dad’s garden just would not have worked with the way weather can be around here.

(Photos by Dave Anderl)

One day I was in our kitchen, and on our freezer door I saw our red origami rose magnet.  It is really tiny (quarter sized); it was a rose Daniel made for me when we were dating.  I glued a magnet to the back of it and for years it’s been on our refrigerator.  The idea came to me and I felt like I had a little light bulb hanging over my head.  I told Daniel it would be neat if we could make origami roses and use them in the wedding.  He thought about it and agreed.  He made this his project during the entire planning process.  He tried out different types of paper and finally came across some red paper (just the right color, too) at a local art store that was closing.  He bought all they had left (at a discount, too!) and cut it into individual squares.  We later learned that the paper was handmade Italian paper, Fabriano Ingres, which makes it all even better.  The plan was for me to do all of the pre-folding, and once that was done, he would do all of the rest.  He did his magic and the result was over 1,400 origami roses.  Each rose took about 5 minutes to make.  There were plenty of times when I fell behind, but we made well over our initial goal of 1,000.  Daniel always made sure to remind me to do my pre-folding, sometimes he was actually annoying about it, but it was so worth it.

(Photo by Daniel)

The first things we made were the centerpieces.  These were rose ball topiaries.  Daniel made the first one as an example and I approved it.  Painted the pot brown, the dowel rod gold, added some moss, and put the table number on it.  Success!  We made 14 more.

(Photos by Dave Anderl)

I came up with the structure for the bouquets, basically it was the same idea as the topiary, except no pot and a thick stem.  I used a styrofoam ball and about 5 dowel rods for the stem on each one.  The rods were wrapped with floral tape and hot glued into a hole in the ball.  The ball was painted red.  Brown ribbon was wrapped around the “stem” and the roses were stuck all into the ball.  (We used lots of hot glue and toothpicks for this part)  For the bridesmaids bouqets, we did the same steps, except used white paint on the ball and white paper for the roses.  They were smaller versions of my bouquet and the tossing bouquet.

Then we made boutineeres for all of the guys.  We just used a single rose and Daniel folded a nice little leaf for each of them.  We glued those together and glued safety pins to the backs so they could be worn easily.

(Photos by Dave Anderl)

Then there was the cake topper.  Same idea as the rose balls, except it was half of a ball.  Worked out perfectly.  We also made sure we had a single rose for each individual place setting at the reception.  The guests loved them!

(Photos by Dave Anderl)

We made everything for our wedding, except for the cake, food, and attire.  We wanted it to be personal and unique, and to represent everything that our love for each other stood for.  Daniel is a pianist so he pre-recorded all of our ceremony music. We wrote our ceremony and made our entire playlist.  We are so lucky and thankful to have so many loved ones who helped us with our wedding.  Our officiant was my brother-in-law, the DJ was a close friend to my sister (who is in radio).  Our photographer was also a close friend of ours.  Our “guestbook” was a quilt made with love by a cousin in the family, which everyone signed. We have no regrets about anything, and all of the people who came to our wedding tell us how personal and special our wedding was, and how much fun they had at the reception.  Out of everything we made, the origami roses were the biggest and most time consuming project, but we never once thought about quitting the idea. It was a total success and we could not be happier with the way it turned out!

(Photos by Dave Anderl)

Ashley plans to put tutorials up on her blog soon.  She also has more pictures from the planning stages.  Aren’t those the most fantastic DIY flowers ever?!

I’m not a Cow or a Goat, or any livestock for that matter!

I’ve never really been much of a “feminist.”  Yes, I believe woman can do anything they put their mind to, and we deserve every right and every penny men receive.  However, I’m not going around burning any bras or anything crazy like that.  I’ve always been an independent woman, capable of doing whatever I want or need to do.  And I’ve definitely never felt like I belonged to anyone.

So, when it came time to decide who would walk me down the aisle, I kinda balked at the idea of having my Dad give me away.  Um, hello?  I’m not a cow.  There is no dowry exchanging hands.  I am not becoming Mr. CC’s responsibility.  Do I really want to uphold this tradition?

My parents split when I was 16.  Dad left abruptly.  I had a very “Leave it to Beaver” childhood.  My mom stayed home and Dad worked.  They never fought.  At least not in front of us.  So, Dad’s unprecedented departure from our home was a shock to everyone’s system.  It hit my mom the hardest.

She has spent the last 12 years as a stay-at-home home.  She packed our lunches every morning, was president of the PTA, the Popcorn Lady, the Penny Power Lady, the Snow cone Lady, and she taught Sunday School at our Church for 10 years.  We had a home cooked meal every single night.  Our Halloween costumes were always homemade (I still cringe at the idea of store bought Halloween costumes).  She went on our field trips with us.  She chaperoned our dances.  She was our Girl Scout troop leader.  I won’t lie and say that we appreciated it then (in fact, sometimes we were down right embarrassed by her involvement in our activities), but as I look back on it now, I wish I had the time and money to do the same thing for my daughter.

When Dad left, Mom was lost.  She was propelled into a workforce she was unfamiliar with and had no marketable job skills to boot.  Her Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology was all but null and void.

Yet, she persevered.  She worked temp jobs for a while, until the divorce was final, and took evening classes at the same university I graduated from 6 years later.  After the divorce was finalized, Mom was granted a sizable portion of my dad’s 401k and enough child support and alimony to support us.  She quit working and through all her time and energy into the Physician’s Assistant Program at the University of South Alabama.  Twenty-seven months later, she graduated with a Master’s degree and started her second career.

I had never been more proud of my mother.

My relationship with my mom was definitely rocky in the months following the divorce.  Mom was distraught and frustrated.  A lot of responsibility got put on my 16-year-old shoulders, and at the time, I was very resentful.  As I got older, more understanding, and especially after I became a mom, I soon realized that it was a defense mechanism, and my mom was severely depressed.  She has been there for me through everything and is definitely my best friend.  I can’t imagine a single day without my mom.

My relationship with my father, on the other hand, has always been strained.  The divorce caused a huge divide between my dad and his children.  Over time, my wounds have healed, and I realized he’s the only dad I get, and I should make the best of it.  We have grown closer since the birth of my daughter.  We also lived together for 18 months while I was in Nursing School.  Sure, we don’t always see eye-to-eye, but that’s ok.

Once I had decided that I was not a cow, and I wouldn’t be “given away,” it was time to decide who, if anyone, would walk me down the aisle.  This wasn’t something that I was going to take lightly.  I knew that any deviation from the traditional would hurt my dad’s feelings tremendously.  However, we had decided against a unity candle and I really wanted some way to include my mother.

I decided I wanted both my parents to walk me down the aisle.  No one is giving me away.  Instead, they would be escorting me down the aisle in support of my marriage.  They both contributed so much to my life, how could I leave one of them out?

My mom was thrilled.  My dad, not so much.  He wants to walk me down the aisle, just me and him.  He says he will do whatever I want, but I can tell he’s hurt.

So, hive, what do I do?  Rescind the offer to walk me down the aisle to my mom and find some other way to honor her?  Tell my dad to deal and have them both walk me down?  Or should I just go alone?

Registery Conundrums

When we first started this registry thing, it was obvious to both of us that it was going to be difficult.  Mr. CC is not the kind of guy who thinks the kitchen is my domain and is willing to let me pick out the china patterns and kitchen accessories without much imput.

So here we are, getting ready to mail out those invites, and I’m panicking about china patterns and the color scheme in our future kitchen.

(source)

I love poppy and aqua!!  It’s so fresh and inviting.  Martha agrees!  Have you seen her line of poppy and aqua kitchen goodies at Macy’s?  Le Sigh!

This, which currently resides on my kitchen counter, is also a problem.

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I’ve been coveting this coffee maker since I gave my mom her’s 3 years ago for Christmas.  Hands down the best home made coffee eva!  So… totally matches the poppy and aqua right?!  Yeah.

Problem:  Mr. CC is not down with poppy and aqua.  And, I’m not sure I want to collect china and small appliances that are poppy and aqua (or matchy) since it is a fad, and I will probably change my mind at some point in time (likely sooner rather than later).

So, I have the most fantastic red coffee pot.  And a Husband-to-be who will not like my poppy and aqua.

Mr. CC and I sat down and discussed the qualities we would want to have in our future home.  We want something warm and rustic, lots of antiques and big fluffy couches.  We recently got a new dining room table.

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It’s espresso and cherry stained wood and it looks really great with the few antiques that we already have.  We want to model our kitchen after this table.  I’m thinking espresso and honey cabinets and counter tops, with dark red, sage green, and stainless accents.

Something like this

(source)

Or this

(source)

Likely, somewhere in the middle.

Ok, so the problem is… preverbial kitchen is well off in the future.  I should choose china patterns now.

We both love this pattern for our formal china.

(Lenox Federal Platinum)

It’s simple, elegant, and completely timeless.  We want something similar for our everyday china.  I lean towards a simple white pattern.  He says it’s boring, and wants a design on it.

His Choice:

(Lenox Voila)

So not rustic!

My choice:

(PotteryBarn’s Emma)

Simple, timeless, classic.  Perhaps not “rustic” by definition, but not nearly as modern as his choice.

I hadn’t planned on registering at Pottery Barn.  There isn’t one here.  I can’t go in and touch and feel things.  I kinda need that.  But I love those dishes!!

So my question to you..Is it totally ridiculous to register at a store for one thing?  Or is that ok?  We’re trying to give lots of options, we’ve already started registeries at Macy’s and Target.  What do you think?

DIY Linen Flowers

Since I’m on the topic of hair do-dads, I thought I’d share this project with y’all too.

Remember this dress?

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And these shoes?

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Someone suggested a yellow hair flower, and I automatically thought of this tutorial I had bookmarked.

(source)

Well, I ordered some linen swatches from NY Fashion Center Fabrics.  What lovely fabric!!  Color Citron matched my shoes perfectly!  So I ordered a yard of Citron colored linen and got started!

First I cut a 8 inch stip off my linen.  I only did this for ease.  Honestly, a yard was way too much fabric, this project could be done with just scraps.  Then I freehanded (or cut rather) 17 circles of various sizes.  I stacked them from largest to smallest in three piles, two of 6 and one of 5.

Then I sewed them together and beaded them.  The beads I bought weren’t really meant for beading, so the holes in them were really really tiny, and beading became a miserable nightmare.  But, it’s done now.

Then I sewed them together using just the bottom layer.  I then cut out a piece of the linen that would cover the stiches.  I attached a clip and then sewed my scrap fabric on the back of the flowers.

Here’s the final result.

So, what do y’all think?

To Veil or Not to Veil, Part 3

I suppose I’ve kept y’all in suspense long enough.  I continued to debate on the veil issue.  I ordered swatches from several companies, looked at the tulle at my local fabric store, scoured the internet for veil tutorials, and was ridiculously frustrated with the whole thing.  One night, I looked over at Mr. CC and asked his opinion.  It was something like, “I don’t care, but I want to be able to flip it back.”  Ok…so, that kinda meant blusher. Back to the drawing board.

All of this happened before WeddingBee.  Y’all will remember this post about HoneyComb Veils.  I fell in love with her work, and we worked together on a custom design to match my dress.  I sent her pictures of my hair inspirations and my dress.  She sent me some sketches

to choose from and then tulle samples and bead samples.  We discussed the things that were important to me, and she proceeded.

A few days ago, I received these pictures in my email.

I was ecstatic!  It was gorgeous!  Not at all what I had in mind when I started looking at veils, but perfect!  The tulle is champagne.  There are 12 clusters of bead and sequins around the cut edge.  The comb is beaded.  It’s long, fingertip on the short side.

And today, this arrived.

(it was in a really ugly priority mail box.)

I was really impressed by the care that was put into the packaging.

Inside was my veil.

I’m not going to show you yet, for two reasons.  Number one, I got it after I had been working out and I was superbly gross.  And number 2, I am terrible at taking pictures of myself, and I don’t want Mr. CC to see it yet.

So, it’s not a flower, and it’s not a birdcage.  I know it will drive me crazy during the reception, so I’m working on an alternate plan for that as well.  I promise I’ll let you in on it soon!

To Veil or Not to Veil, Part 2

So, now I was having mixed feelings about veils.  Really, about hair pieces in general.  I was head over heels in love with the flower trend.

(1, 2)

Could I wear both?  Or maybe I should wear a veil for the ceremony and a flower for the reception?  Argh…. there were so many decisions to be made.

I hemmed and hawed about veils for literally months!  By this point, I had decided I wanted one.  I just needed to make a decision about what it was going to look like.  And I was still debating about a flower.  The comb idea had been completely disregarded.

During this stage of planning, I hadn’t settled on the vintage/compass theme yet.  We were working with a pink and clover color scheme with a peony theme.  I was leaning towards a traditional veil for the ceremony and a flower for the reception.

(Both pictures courtesy Occansey Designs)

I didn’t want anything too long, or terribly fancy or fluffy.  I either wanted something very, very plain, or something with a little bling to match the bodice of my dress.

And then we left the peony theme for the vintage theme.  And, while I had always loved the birdcage look, I just wasn’t confident enough to try to pull it off without it “matching” the theme.

I knew I would not be able to handle a traditional birdcage

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Since it would obviously cover my face.  I thought I should probably go with something a little more chic and off-center.

(1, 2)

Thank you Mrs. Sea Breeze and Yes I really do love Katherine Heigl!

I was really, really struggling with this decision.  I considered turning to the Hive for help, but I just wasn’t ready to put it all out there like that.  I’m about the most indecisive person I’ve ever met.  I didn’t want to bring this struggle to y’all without having some kind of decision already made.  I didn’t want y’all to have to watch me stradle the fence and change my mind 16 times about the veil decision.  So… what do you think I chose?

Freak out!!

I just threw up in my mouth a little… My coutdown says I have 156 days until this thing happens!!

To Veil or Not to Veil, Part 1

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This is Aubie, the much beloved mascot of Auburn University.  Mr. CC is a huge Auburn fan, and I’m coming along.  However, I do not like Aubie at all.

There is something mildly disturbing about the person behind that over sized head.  I think my dislike has something to do with the unknown element here.  Who is that exactly behind that over sized head, or that ridiculous clown make-up (I hate clowns too, same reason)?

So, this takes me to the point at hand.  I don’t like heavy makeup, hats, oversized bows.  I never paint my face for halloween.  I seldom wear hats.  Although there are exceptions, like civil war reenacting, in which it is social unacceptable for a lady to be in mixed company without her head covered.  And I will occasionally wear a hat at the beach.  Matt bought me an Auburn hat, which I proudly sported at the opening game of the 2008 season.  This is the first hat I really felt comfortable in.

authors personal collection;  I was totally sporting as much AU merchandise as I possibly could!

So, when I first started choosing the pieces for my wedding day look, I was very anti-veil.  I didn’t want anything covering my head or my face.  I definitely leaned the way of beaded combs and vintage brooches.

Both photos courtesy of The Knot.

Beautiful, simple, No scary child molester hiding under an oversized head.  Right?  Right.

Then I tried my dress on.  And she put a veil on my head.  And while I desperately hated that veil, it did up the “Bridal Factor” significantly.

But I kinda felt like the elbow length veil she put on my head (sorry, no pictures, because I’m a nerd and didn’t take my camera on that first trip) took away from the lovely corset back of my dress.  At that point, I definitely decided I was going sans veil.

The first trip to the Bridal Shop to try on gowns was before wedding blogs, before Etsy, before WeddingBee, before StyleMePretty.  It was also before I realized that the Bridal Shop is not the only place you can buy bridal accessories.

I started seeing pictures like this:

(1, 2, 3)

And started feeling differently about a veil.  Those pictures make me want a veil, just for those kind of photo-ops.

Next up, Veil inspiration!

Dying your crinoline, a complete guide

So… someone asked me to do a tutorial on how to dye your crinoline.

I have no pictures.  I’m sorry.  I had no intentions of doing a tutorial.  But it’s okay, you really don’t need pictures to explain this, because it is so easy.

If you want to avoid having to purchase two crinolines, make sure your crinoline is made of anything but polyester.  Mine was Nylon taffeta.  David’s Bridal is a good resource, all of their crinnies are nylon.

The first thing I did was throw that thing in the washer.  I washed it on delicate with just a little bit of soap to make sure that there wasn’t any sizing or fixer in the fabric.

When the cycle was done, I took the crinny out and untangled it.  I put a lawn sized trashbag on the floor to help coral the water.  Then, I filled the washer basin up about half way (I have 4 settings on my washer, and I used the second setting.) with hot water.  Stop the washer before it starts to agitate.  Make sure your crinoline is still wet.  Ok, now, is you have powder dye, you need to mix it with water.  I know nothing about this, I used liquid dye to cut out that step.

So, my crinny is wet, my washer is half full of hot water.  Pour in your dye.  Do not pour the dye in on top of your crinoline.  Yikes!  I let my washer agitate for about 5 seconds to mix the dye with the water, then I stopped it again.  I put on my super thick industrial strength rubber gloves and shoved that bad boy in my washer.  BTW, the first time I tried this, I didn’t bother with the gloves, and my hands didn’t turn any kind of weird color, but I was using pink dye.

Also, I guess it might make a difference in how you stuck the crinoline in the washer.  I kinda dressed the spindle.  I unzipped the crinoline and put it around the spindle.  I felt like this was the best way to get all the tulle and the taffeta in the water and not all clumpy.  I was really afraid of it coming out tie dyed!  It didn’t, thank goodness!

Once you have submersed your entire crinny in the water, turn it back on and let it agitate.  I let the first crinoline agitate through 3 cycles and two bottles of dye.  The second time around, I only let it agitate through one cycle, or about 15 minutes.  This part is really up to you.  Know how intense or pale you want your crinoline to be.  Have something nearby to compare it to.  Mine came out a little darker than I would have liked, but that’s alright.  Honestly, the pink is only coming out in my crinoline and my flowers and centerpieces.  So, who cares if it matches perfectly?  Like everyone of my flowers will be the same shade of pink.  Fat chance.

After you have allowed the crinny to agitate for the desired amount of time, let the wash cycle finish.  Be sure the water runs clear to avoid staining the inside of your dress the color of your crinoline (doubtful, as you would have to go swimming in them, but still…).

Then I hung mine to dry in the bathroom.

And now I feel very guilty putting it in a closet.  It’s currently taking up much needed space hanging from the closet doors in my tiny hallway.

So, who else is dying your crinoline?  Perhaps we should have a thread on the boards!?